Compensating

Last week we talked about parallel parking a car -- or in my
case, not parallel parking the thing -- and how, if we don't know a specific
skill, we can frequently compensate by doing things another way.

It's not easy drawing the human figure accurately, and if
you've tried and you've tried and it's just not happening, it may be time to
ask for help. Aphrodite
by Steve Henderson.

But sometimes, compensating doesn't work, and if you, in
your artwork, have reached the point of frustration that you just can't draw a
human figure drawing to look like something other than a space alien, of if your still-life paintings of
flowers look dead, or whatever it is that is driving you to distraction, then
it's time to admit that you don't know how to do this, what you've been doing
up to this point isn't working, and it's time to move forward in the matter.

So, where do you move?

The initial solution is to take a painting instruction class, but there are lots
of other options. My favorite, hands down, is finding an artist whose work you
like and asking him or her if they will 1) teach you or 2) review your work and
give some suggestions. The latter being called a consultation.

Before we move on, let me talk about that word "giving" back
there, as in "giving some suggestions."

By all means, plan to pay this artist for his or her time;
many artists offer classes on how to paint or how to draw, or portfolio reviews, and the best way to find out
if the artist you're interested in does this kind of thing is to ask.

Can you afford this?
Yeah, probably. We'll talk more about this in my next post.